THE Lord Jesus has entered on His course. In the desert, apart from the associations of men, and all the palliatives of human misery, in the fertile regions of the earth. The Son of God, born of a woman, born under the law, begins His course. In far different circumstances from the first Adam, He withstands the assault of Satan. In Eden everything the eye rested on proclaimed the goodness and love of an Almighty hand. In the wilderness, where not a green thing assured the heart of the care of God for man—a vast dreary scene—type, morally, of all creation—aggravated to the utmost by the presence of Satan, the malignant author of its ruin, did He unhesitatingly maintain the goodness and worthiness of God. He is faithful to God, let circumstances wear what aspect they may; He could be stripped as Job, as a pelican in the wilderness, and yet His heart would not swerve from confidence in His Father, or His feet decline from the mission of His grace. He is not to be interrupted in His service. He comes forth in the majesty of a conqueror to fulfill His course, and in the power of the Spirit, and is “glorified of all.” He delays not to announce at Nazareth, “whore He had been brought up,” the wonderful service on which He was then entering. He goes into the synagogue, and stands up to read. He reads the beautiful and comprehensive prophecy of the objects of His mission. “All (Israel) was amazed at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth,” but all were incredulous, for truth was not to be valued for truth’s sake, because it fell from the lips of one so humble as Joseph’s son. Jesus is first rejected where He was brought up, where He ought to have been best accepted. When Cherith dried up—when the stream of Israel no longer flowed to cheer the prophet of God—is there no resource? Is there not a member of the human family to minister to the Lord of glory? Israel, where He was brought up, where the blessed features of His grace, from infancy to manhood, were developed—where he was best known-has rejected Him. To whom will He turn? Is there a Gentile widow? Is there a Gentile leper? The Gentile widow of Sarepta is the ready hostess to Elias of that cheer which was denied to him in Israel; the desolate Gentile, with gladness, and glorifying the word of the Lord, received the rejected of Israel. The widowed heart and the leprous mighty man, aptly embodied the characteristics of the family into whose circle the blessed Lord would retire from Israel. Where He ought to have been best known, where He was brought up, He is rejected even to death. He is led to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong.
He passes away from them, but His hands are still stretched out, the star of mercy is still in the ascendant. He teaches on the Sabbath-days, in a city of Galilee, and here encounters the root and power of all man’s enmity and opposition to God. The spirit of an unclean devil lurks in the bosom of man. Satan holds possession—man surrendered to him! Who will evict him? The evil spirit cowers in the presence of Jesus of Nazareth. A man has risen up who will give it no place, but who will destroy it, for He is the Holy One of God. A man now commands Satan to loose his grasp on his fellow-man, and he yields; he must yield, but not without a struggle. Too long he held his sway in the human heart to surrender without resistance. The unclean spirit “had thrown him in the midst and came out of him.” One is brought low in the world by the ejection of Satan; but this is the utmost of his power, for it “hurts him not.” In the beginning of this chapter we have soon our Lord’s personal conflict and victory over Satan; here we see His power over him in man’s heart, the throne of his empire. Like a mighty warrior, Jesus assaults every citadel; having first in single combat proved Himself, He now proceeds to every place of Satan’s power, and every result of it, as one able to meet any and all. In keeping with this I believe is the perfect and immediate cure of Peter’s wife’s mother of a “ great fever;” the power of evil is not only met personally in the wilderness, but as an unclean spirit in man, and still more in its results, as a “ great fever “ conveys. Henceforth the devils know what the world refuse to own, “that He was Christ.” Yet Jesus continues His course to other cities also; His comfort amidst all rejection—” For therefore am I sent.”